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Author Topic: Cheers! Pawlenty passes basement drink brewing law  (Read 2129 times)

Offline pashusa

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Cheers! Pawlenty passes basement drink brewing law
« on: April 02, 2010, 11:15:25 am »
4/2/2010 9:30:10 AM
Associated Press
ST. PAUL — Home drink brewers in Minnesota can now sell their concoctions to the public.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed a bill Thursday that makes it legal for commercial beverages to be brewed in the basement of a building.

Early laws made it all right to make home brews for personal use but prohibited people from selling the drinks. Many had concerns about moisture and mildew often found in basements.

Under the new law, the state's Department of Agriculture will review spaces and issue permits to those that pass muster.

This applies to brewing everything from drink syrups and carbonated drinks to bottled beer.
I wasn't even in town that day, I swear.

Offline denny

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Re: Cheers! Pawlenty passes basement drink brewing law
« Reply #1 on: April 02, 2010, 11:17:00 am »
Or maybe not...from Gary Glass...

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=1413.msg17482#msg17482

"It's amusing, I've been contacted by two separate reporters regarding this bill.  I checked it out after seeing that same article posted above, and as I suspected, the bill has nothing to do with homebrewing.  It has to do with changing Agriculture Dept. regulations on food/beverage production, specifically beer and fruit juice.

I did note that the regulations require that commercially produced beer be bottled/canned on automated equipment.  So small brewers doing specialty brews can't legally hand fill bottles, like a lot of brewers do with 750 ml bottles and such for their specialty beers.

Cheers!
Gary"

Also...

Here is a better read on this from a Minnesota Craft Brewer:
There is a misrepresentation by some that the legislation about brewing below grade will allow folks to brew in their home basement commercially. This is not case.
The bill was introduced on behalf of a non-alcohol beverage producer who wish to produce products below grade in a commercially zoned area.
When the MN Department of Agriculture looked at the rules they realized many current commercially licensed businesses were in compliance with the law. This included several brew pubs and breweries. Recognizing this, language was introduce to cleaned up the law to bring existing business in compliance with the law.
To become a brewer in MN you will still need to be approved federally by ATF/TTB which now include filing documents via the ATF/TTB for the Department Homeland Security and the FDA. Further you will have to be approved by the MN Department
Public Safety, the MN Department of Agriculture and by your local city government which governs local building, zoning, and icensing issues. The key word being zoning.
Production breweries are license by the State as a manufacturing business thus local governments required them to operate in industrial zoned areas.
Brewpubs are licensed under the on premise license thus are required to operate in commercial zones, with all the requirement that come with being an on premise business.
Hope this helps everyone better understand the issues.
Tod Fyten
President/Brewer
Mantorville Brewing Company, LLC
« Last Edit: April 02, 2010, 11:23:12 am by denny »
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Offline Kaiser

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Re: Cheers! Pawlenty passes basement drink brewing law
« Reply #2 on: April 02, 2010, 01:24:40 pm »
The first thing I looked at was the positing date. Yesterday I would have considered this an April Fools joke :)

Kai

Offline a10t2

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Re: Cheers! Pawlenty passes basement drink brewing law
« Reply #3 on: April 02, 2010, 01:49:49 pm »
TTB's going to shoot you down right off the bat anyway. 27 CFR 25.21:

Quote
A brewery may not be established or operated in any dwelling house or on board any vessel or boat, or in any building or on any premises where the revenue will be jeopardized or the effective administration of this part will be hindered.

A residence and a brewery can be on the same property or even share a common wall as long as there's no connection. (Actually, people have gotten around the regulation by bricking over doors and things like that.) The brewery also has to comply with all other federal regulations for a workplace. So if it's in your former basement, you'll need to put in a ramp, ADA bathroom/fixtures, separate emergency exit, etc.

But yeah, this has nothing to do with home brewers in the first place.
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